USCG Strike Teams Provide Assistance

Seventy Coast Guard Strike Team members from the National Strike Force deployed to the World Trade Towers incident, Washington D.C., and Boca Raton, Fla., to assist other agencies with response as a result of terrorist attacks.

The Coast Guard Strike Force, specialists in emergency and chemical response, were requested by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to assist with air monitoring, contractor oversight and operating washing stations in New York at Ground Zero and the Staten Island Landfill evidence collection site. In Washington, Strike Force members are dressed in Level B response gear to help gather samples at the Capitol Building and the Hart Senate Office Building. Additionally, they are providing contractor oversight and are operating washing sites on scene.

In Florida, members of the Gulf Strike Team will set up decontamination stations at the American Media building to help scrub down other responders after they come out of the building. Besides providing expert assistance with decontamination, air monitoring and contractor oversight, Strike Team men and women have also on helped other agencies set up an Incident Command System structure, which is away of managing large numbers of personnel, equipment and agencies who are deployed during a crisis or other emergency operation.